An abundance of information is now available to users of the internet or world wide web. Sometimes the amount of available information is overwhelming to users. However, even with the wealth of information available, users of the internet often routinely return to their favorite sites and web pages.
Access to the internet and world wide web can be slow and time consuming, especially during the most popular hours of the day. Access can be much faster during the off-peak hours when not as many users are accessing the system. Even during the off-peak hours it can be time consuming to access a web page or internet site to determine if it has been updated or if there is any new information of interest to a user.
When accessing an internet site, a user instructs the computer to dial up the server of the user's internet service provider. The computer or settop box then controls the operation of a modem to establish the connection with the internet service provider. Once a connection has been made between the modem and the internet service provider, the user must then log on to the service, usually by entering a username and a password. When the user is logged on to the service, the user can then access services and information provided by the service provider and also information available through web pages at other addresses on the internet. When accessing information available through the internet, the user connects through their service provider to other servers which are providing information. This information is usually provided at internet sites and web pages. Each internet site and web page has a particular address through which it can be accessed. By entering this address, the user is instructing their internet service provider to connect them to that address.
Each internet site or web page typically has information about a certain subject. For example, an internet site provided by a newspaper will typically have current news, stories and other information provided by the newspaper. Other sites might have news, information and stock quotes about particular companies or types of companies. Still another site might have information related to a particular type of automobile. A user desiring to access such a site in order to discover whether there is any new information available since the last time the user accessed the site or any information of interest to the user, must perform the entire log on process and wait while the site is accessed through the service provider. For a user interested in many different subjects, this can be a very time-consuming process.
There are currently services which will automatically conduct a search and provide a user with information about a particular subject which is available on the internet. Typically, to use such a service, a user will enter the specific subject matter about which they would like to obtain information. This service then automatically searches the internet for the user and obtains information about the specific subject matter. This information will be gathered by the search service from many different sites on the internet. The user is then provided with a report outlining this information and the sites from where it was gathered.
The IEEE 1394 standard, "P1394 Standard For A High Performance Serial Bus," Draft 8.02v2, Jul. 7, 1995, is an international standard for implementing an inexpensive high-speed serial bus architecture which supports both asynchronous and isochronous format data transfers. The IEEE 1394 standard provides a high-speed serial bus for interconnecting digital devices thereby providing a universal I/O connection. The IEEE 1394 standard defines a digital interface for the applications thereby eliminating the need for an application to convert digital data to analog data before it is transmitted across the bus. Correspondingly, a receiving application will receive digital data from the bus, not analog data, and will therefore not be required to convert analog data to digital data. An `application` as used herein will refer to either an application or a device driver.
The cable specified by the IEEE 1394 standard is very thin in size compared to many other cables, such as conventional co-axial cables, used to connect such devices. Devices can be added and removed from an IEEE 1394 bus while the bus is active. If a device is so added or removed the bus will then automatically reconfigure itself for transmitting data between the then existing nodes. A node is considered a logical entity with a unique address on the bus structure. Each node provides an identification ROM, a standardized set of control registers and its own address space.
What is needed is a system which automatically obtains information from user specified internet sites. What is further needed is a system which automatically obtains information from specific internet sites during a specified time period, while a user is not using the system.